Business Directories

Kuwait approves $29 billion oil projects

Kuwait, June 28, 2011

Kuwait's Supreme Petroleum Council approved the construction of a new 615,000 barrels per day state-of-the-art refinery late on Monday, the oil minister said.

'We hope that the regulatory procedures and approvals are clear within the next months,' Kuwaiti oil minister Mohammad Al-Busairi told Reuters on Tuesday.

The council also approved the upgrading of two of three existing refineries to raise output and produce cleaner products, a report said.

The projects are estimated to cost 8 billion dinars ($29 billion). The new refinery will be state run.

The refinery project was scrapped by the government more than two years ago, months after it awarded contracts to five Japanese and South Korean companies. MPs had opposed the plan complaining of a lack of transparency in the tendering process.